MARQUETTE – Upper Peninsula Health Care Solutions, Inc. (UPHCS) recently received a Data Innovation Award from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP). The award recognizes UPHCS for commendable dedication to quality improvement data innovation as a FORHP Patient Level Data Pilot participant, demonstrating exemplary contribution to furthering improvements to the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of grant program reporting. The award ceremony occurred during the 2018 Rural Health Care Collaboration Small Health Care Provider Quality Improvement Partnership last week in Washington D.C.
In August 2016, UPHCS was awarded a $600,000 three-year grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The grant project promotes the Chronic Care Model & LEAN Process of quality improvement as well as the use of Certified Electronic Health Record Technology (CEHRT) to improve care coordination of chronic disease populations and decrease Emergency Department use and hospital readmissions. The long term goal of the grant is to sustain improvement models in practice and spread quality improvement efforts to other conditions and populations in preparation for transition from volume to value-based reimbursement models. The UPHCS project team collaborates with over 40 primary care clinics across the Upper Peninsula, representing hospital and health system affiliated clinics, Rural Health Clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and independent practices.
“We are very pleased to accept the recent award recognition from the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy. The award is truly representative of the innovation and commitment to quality healthcare delivery across our Upper Peninsula healthcare partners,” said Janey Joffee, Upper Peninsula Health Care Solutions Assistant Director.
For the first two years of the Small Healthcare Provider Quality Improvement Program grant, UPHCS formalized an interagency collaborative to facilitate networking, discuss quality and performance improvement projects, and share best practices. This collaborative includes over 40 grant participants from across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. With one year remaining on the grant, the collaborative is working to utilize Performance Improvement and Measurement System (PIMS) to monitor performance improvement activities, provide clinic participants feedback on clinic versus group performance, and monitor group performance versus the Merit-based Incentive Payment System, Michigan Medicaid Meaningful Use, and HEDIS benchmarks.
About UPHCS
Upper Peninsula Health Care Solutions, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that serves the 310,000 residents of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We are a network of community health care providers with a shared vision of working together to improve access, reduce cost, and promote quality health care services in the communities served by our members. Visit www.uphcs.org for more information.
